I’m in the middle of a team assessment with a team that is actually performing at a high level.
They’re hitting deadlines, collaborating well, and they all genuinely like each other.
But I’m finding that underneath the surface, there’s an issue that’s only getting worse.
Their boss, Peter (name changed), is generally a nice person and leader.
He’s also terrible at planning and managing tasks.
His team has known this about him and they’ve managed to function fine for a long time together, telling themselves they’re flexible.
What they were really doing was “compensating”
What’s getting in the team’s way?
One of the things they all felt was a strength of their team was their ability to go with the flow.
They could respond quickly when something went wrong, or if Peter wanted to change something on the fly – they all had to roll with the punches.
As it turns out, the struggle with functioning like this is that it makes it incredibly hard to plan – which they identified as the biggest stressor as a team.
It meant that:
- One team member frequently felt stressed because Peter would change plans and tasks, often without telling her directly, which threw off her planning and management of volunteers and resources.
- The team lead and one of the more veteran staff had difficulty planning their work for upcoming projects, delaying other teams that depended on their work
This led to the team as a whole creating workaround to cover up some of these flaws:
- Team members often went straight to other managers directly instead of going through him
- One team member felt her job involved babysitting this manager and keeping him on task
- They often had to take the initiative to take on a new task – and hoping it was right – rather than waiting for him to provide direction
- Another team member became an unofficial calendar and task manager for the entire team
Bottom line: Despite saying they loved the flexibility, Peter’s inability to plan and manage the work was causing them to create workarounds to cover up the flaws in his workstyle.
Workarounds are not meant to be process
Workarounds are meant to be temporary fixes – they’re not meant to be the process themselves.
As this time team was living out and discovering for themselves, creating and living out these temporary fixes only get you so far before the system starts to break, before you start to break.
As an outsider, it was clear to see:
- Frustration at not knowing how to plan their work
- Anxiety and guilt around not being able to properly support volunteers and other teams or passing on necessary information last minute
- Everyone routinely doing work on their days off to catch any last minute changes.
- Accountability was a grey area
- Past team members and volunteers burning out and leaving altogether.
This is what I often find over and over – well-meaning and nice leaders have great teams.
But high performance can also mask leadership bottlenecks.
Are you helping or hurting your team?
As a leader, you need to be really clear: are you helping your team perform or are they performing in spite of you?
The good news in this situation is that Peter was the one who called me in.
He knew at some level that he was holding his team back, but wasn’t sure how to fix it.
He wanted to get better – he just didn’t know how to do it.
You don’t always have to hire an outside person to do it, you just have to be open and recognize that just because you’re not hearing complaints that everything is fine.
But the reality is:
Teams often adapt quietly. They absorb friction. They create shadow systems.
Not because they’re disloyal.
Because they’re committed to the cause.
If you want to start getting past your own blindspots, here’s where to start:
- Get a real assessment of how your team’s doing
If you haven’t done this before, meet with them 1:1 and set the stage that you’re looking for real feedback. Set a regular rhythm where you check in to see if things are improving.
Ask them what’s going well.
Ask them what’s something that could be improved.
Ask them what’s something you do without realizing that’s making the work harder than it needs to be.
- Related to that, get really good at just listening!
This is not meant to be a dialogue, so do everything in your power to hold your tongue.
You don’t need to explain your rationale and you need to manage your emotions – because chances are you’ll feel defensive at some of this feedback.
Instead, just listen, ask details to make sure you understand what improvement really looks like and then thank them for their feedback.
Go vent afterwards to someone you trust, but the goal here is create an environment where they feel comfortable telling you what’s wrong.
You getting defensive won’t help that.
- Figure out the area/processes that are slowing your team down, or where you’re getting in the way of them getting things done
Take all their feedback and figure out 1-2 areas or processes that could be tightened up.
There might be more, or there might be only 1 thing – it doesn’t matter.
Focus on just 1-2 things to improve:
- It’s easier to manage/focus on
- It’s easier to keep track of
- It’s easier for everyone to see progress
And when they see that process improve and help them, it’ll help them buy into the process even more.
Clarity is kindness (great quote!) and will help improve morale faster than any speech.
- You don’t have to fix it yourself
Peter was stressed at first because planning and task management isn’t his strength, so he wasn’t sure how he could get better at it.
And there are definitely things he can do to get better, but the most important thing I recommended he do?
Involve his team in figuring out processes and communication strategies together.
He doesn’t have to come up with all the answers, he just has to be good at facilitating his team.
And truthfully, his team is really good already, so it’s just trusting that they can do this together.
You may feel like your team isn’t as skilled.
I can tell you that they’re probably more skilled than you realize. They’re probably hungry for the opportunity to improve things.
They just need you to give them the chance, the structure, and the freedom.
And then you need to actually follow through and empower their choices.
For Peter and his team? I’ll keep you updated on their progress.
In the meantime – this isn’t easy work (getting feedback on what your blindspots are) – but it’s probably the most important thing you can do to help your teams.
Do you already do something similar? What have you learned about it?
Cheers,
Chris
